Collaborative Research: The new normal: the continuing influence of the late Pleistocene megafauna extinction on the structure and function of mammal communities

University Of New Mexico, Albuquerque NM

Investigators

Abstract

This project concerns one of humanity’s greatest challenges – how to slow down, halt, or mitigate the continued loss of biodiversity on Earth. The world is losing much of its animal biodiversity, and populations of large-bodied mammals are declining at an alarming rate. Their decline has serious consequences because large mammals have important roles within ecosystems, which are not replicated by smaller-bodied animals. Not surprisingly, a major focus of conservation, biology, and wildlife management efforts today are geared towards developing an understanding of how this biodiversity loss may impact contemporary ecosystems, and what we can do about it. The consequences of biodiversity loss on ecosystem function can take decades or even centuries to manifest, and so this is where a paleontological, or longer time, perspective can help. The migration of humans into the Americas at the terminal Pleistocene (~13,000 years ago) led to the extinction of >150 species of the largest mammals on the continents, including mammoths, llamas, horses, camels, giant ground sloths, the cave lion, and saber-toothed cats. Examining the role of these extinct mammals, and what happened to the surviving mammals after their extinction, can help us understand what might happen following biodiversity extinction in the future. Thus, this project provides critical baseline information for conservation efforts, as well as insights into the functioning of modern mammal communities. Broader impacts of this work include educational and public outreach, student training, and contributions to scientific infrastructure from the identification and accessioning of fossil materials. The research team will quantify the ecological legacy of the terminal Pleistocene megafaunal extinction on mammal communities in the Edward’s Plateau region of Texas. Building on an unparalleled late Quaternary fossil record of extinct and surviving mammals compiled by the researchers, diet (through stable isotope analysis of preserved collagen in bones), morphology (through 2D and 3D imaging), and ecological interactions (through modeling and simulations) will be characterized at eight key time intervals spanning the past 20,000 years. The overall aim is to characterize the consequences of species extinction on communities, on earth systems, and on surviving animals. Further, the research team will quantify if and how communities recovered, and investigate whether these patterns were influenced by changing climates or by the acceleration and expansion of human impacts over the late Holocene. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.